"I'm
one of the two sales managers here at Cooper France Cooper is an
intemational group based in America which, among other things, produces
tools and equipment for the professional and consumer markets. The group
has subsidiaries in several European countries.
I suppose that if I'm going to describe how things are organised here in
France I'd better start at the top! That's where you'll find Alain Madrange
who is everybody's boss here! He controls all aspects of finance and is
in permanent contact with our head office. Both myself and Michel
Carnelez, who is the other sales manager, report directly to him.
As I said, there are two sales managers, because we sell two very
different categories of product in France. The first is electrical
equipment which is used for assembling components for printed circuit
boards. That's my area. The other is what we call "tools and
hardware" which includes a lot of quite different products, mostly
sold in Do-It-Yourself shops all over the country. Michel Camelez is in
charge of that, and he doesn't haye any Cooper employees working under
him apart from Sylvie Cieutat, his sales secretary. That means he relies
entirely on a national network of ten sales agents including his Paris
agent Daniel Royatte. Michel spends much more time than I do marketing
and promoting his products.
The way my department is organised is really quite simple. About 80% of
our business is done through distributors and the rest is direct to
major account holders, who are our really big customers. As we sell all
over the country this means I need a team of sales people. At the moment
there are four, each responsible for one territory: Cyril Jehanne for
the north, Jean-Noël Echave for the south, Daniel Lorand for the
west and Patrick Amat for the east. I also have a customer services
assistant, Jocyclène Cuisy, and a sales secretary, Marie-Christine
Chaussadas. Together they run the sales office and look after most of
the administration."
SOURCE:
Insights into Business - Lannon, Tullis, Trappe (Longman)
